Tale Zero: Screaming Scorpion (7)

It happened before I knew it, before I had any time to sense, before I had any time to feel – she was already there. Bloodshot eyes were staring at me from above as she stood beside my bed, watching me like a haunting guise.

And not an instant later, as her screams tore through my ears, so did her nails in my neck.

“AAAAAAHHH!!!”

Get away… Get away from me, you monster…!

On her fit of neurotic rage, an inhuman strength she could normally only dream of hit my still weak body like a steamroller. I fought as hard as I could, struggling to no end, but even so – even so I couldn’t escape her grip.

The pain was starting to get to me. Her attacks didn’t subside, or maybe they did, but as my energy faded the piercing pain only grew.

I’d had enough bullshit for a lifetime in the past day, for fuck’s sake…! Why would I put up with this? What was the point of all this suffering? What had I done to deserve this?!

Kill a woman.

That’s right, I had killed a woman. The only person that had ever meant something to me, I had gone and destroyed her. So maybe I did deserve something like this, for another girl I didn’t know to rip apart my neck and kill me. Maybe it was a fitting end for scum like me. And if you’ll allow me to make a selfish comment even at a time like this, maybe this end would save me from a much more disgraceful one that would inevitably come were I to continue living my life as I had up to now.

…

Scratch that.

I didn’t want to end like this. I didn’t want to die. Not before having any chance to apologize to her, not before I can see her face again and say I’m sorry, not before I can hear her voice calling my name again, even if without an ounce of kindness in it this time.

The pain was almost unbearable, I had stopped resisting what seemed like an eternity ago. But I wouldn’t die like this. With all the strength in my body, up to my very last breath, I kicked Emma in the stomach. The first time, she released her grip. And the second, she was sent flying backwards, falling into the floor below and hitting her head with her bed’s leg. She lost her consciousness immediately.

I was relieved, I had saved myself from what had looked like death staring at me in the face, and my wounds would hopefully be surface level and heal quickly. Everything had gone well in the end…. Except, I suddenly realized. She was a patient just like me. And judging from her outbursts – quite likely in critical condition.

“… Oh my god, what have I done?!”

My heart rate skyrocketed, I couldn’t think straight. With my hands shaking, I did my best to lift Emma and put her back in her bed – though I ended up hitting her against it and almost dropping her a few times.

After another bunch of seconds turned centuries, she was finally safe in bed, or at least as safe as she could be after the blow to her head and everything that had come after. I stumbled my way towards my own bed, and pressed the button that was supposed to call for a doctor or a nurse. I wasn’t sure, I had never used one of those before. I had barely even been to a hospital at all.

Which made it surprising just how little it took for Doctor Philip to blast through the door, as much as it probably wasn’t anything extraordinary. Or maybe it was, after all it was his sister that was in this room, he would naturally be worried something had happened to her.

“James! What happened? Are you all right?”

… I didn’t expect him to check on me first, though I guess it was only natural – my bell was the one that had been activated.

Though slightly calmer than before, I pointed to Emma with my fingers still shaking. Philip’s head snapped in her direction and his face contorted when he saw the small trail of blood coming out of her forehead. Then he looked back at me. Seeming to notice the wounds in my neck, arms and legs, his face turned into one of realization.

After making sure he’d properly taken care of our wounds, he injected Emma another dose of anesthesia and hurriedly left the room without uttering a single sound. Silence befell the room once again.

A few minutes later, two nurses entered and put Emma into a wheeled bed, carrying her out of the room. Someone had probably thought that if she stayed here, she could go into a rampage again.

At first I kept overthinking, wondering about the most trivial stuff imaginable – why did Emma jump to attack me, how had she seen me as she dug her nails into my neck, what would she think when she finally woke up with a clear mind. But after a while my brain got tired, it wanted to just forget and go back to its distractions, or maybe just to sleep once more.

In the end, that’s exactly what it did.

My consciousness drifted away and slept for days on end.

…

“James, you’re now officially discharged. It took a while longer than we originally expected, Emma’s rampage took a big toll on your physical and mental recovery. But now you’re perfectly fine, okay? I promise you there’s nothing to worry about. So congratulations on your fast recovery. You can go now.”

“…”

“What’s up? Are you still worried about something? I told you, as long as you follow my advice, you’ll be good-”

“It’s not about that, doctor.”

“I told you to call me Philip.”

“Philip… it’s not about that. I just wanted to know how your sister’s doing now. I haven’t seen her since they took her out of my room.”

“Ah, it’s already been three days since that, hasn’t it… Yeah, she’s better now. Her psychotic attacks have stopped happening so frequently, and her mental and physical condition are just much better overall. You shouldn’t worry about her, but thank you for asking.”

“No, it’s fine, I just wanted to know… By the way, is there any way for me to visit her?”

“Oh? Um, let me see…”

He turned away to type something on his computer, finishing shortly after and rotating his office chair to look in my direction again. He took so little time for looking up whatever information that I couldn’t help but wonder if he’d actually needed to check it on the PC.

“She’s… just been allowed to receive visits a few minutes ago. So yes, you can go and check on her if you want, just make sure to not put yourself in danger. Nobody knows when her next rampage will come.”

“Yeah, makes sense. Got it. What’s her room, D- Philip?

He instantaneously slid a piece of paper towards me from who knows where, with a room number handwritten in it. If you’d told me Philip was a machine made and designed for exactly that purpose, I would have completely believed you.

“There it is, James. But let me warn you, again. Whatever you do, don’t get too close to her, understood?”

“Yes, Philip.”

A smile formed in his face at last, something I hadn’t seen ever since the last time he came to visit before his sister had tried to kill me. I timidly reciprocated it, rising up from my chair and leaving Philip’s office.